hi, I have problems with my tonguing, especially in the higher register. It seems that the pauses in between the notes are too long that it sounds more like staccatos. It's very frustrating especially when the entire piece requires me to tongue quaver notes all the time. My senior tongues so well that you can barely hear the pauses between notes but it's there. Unfortunately he's unable to explain how he does it. I've been practicing alot trying to amend this problem but so far it's gotten me more frustrated with myself instead...Please help! I am at my wits' end.
Whats helped me is to back way up to the exersises you do in your first years on the instrument. Whole notes all the way up the F scale work great if you really focus on the tonguing in between them. Then move to half notes, quarter, eighth, sixtenth. Tonguing only gets better with practice and practice should always start slow then speed up. Also while you are working slow you will have more time to think about only using the very tip of your tongue
Go back to your mouthpiece and barrel. If you can legato tongue on it, then you will sound fine on your horn.
Touch just, like, 1 taste bud of your tongue to the reed. Make sure that only the tip of your tongue moves and not the whole tongue.
If you lightly say "dee....dee..deee.deeedeedeeedeeedee" notice that just the tip of your tongue moves. Thats how it should feel when the mouthpiece is in your mouth, except your tongue will be touching the reed(with "1" taste bud only!) instead of the roof of your mouth.
It's really the tip, but not the very very tip. It's a little above the tip for me. Everybody's tongue is a little different, so it can vary. The middle of your tongue should remain motionless because it creates the shape inside your mouth. If the shape inside your mouth changes when you tongue, you'll be in for some major articulation problems! Especially in the upper register ... in fact, it would be almost impossible to sound good up there. The tip of the tongue moves in an up-and-down way (like when you say the word "dee" the tip just falls from the roof of your mouth right behind the top teeth.
You can check to see if you're moving too much of your tongue by looking at your neck/throat in a mirror when tonguing. The soft part of your neck should not move at all ... ever.
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I've been practicing alot trying to amend this problem but so far it's gotten me more frustrated with myself instead...Please help! I am at my wits' end.
